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Marconi
Cho Oyu Expedition

Throughout
August/September the Marconi
team of six international climbers will
attempt to climb Cho Oyu, the
sixth highest mountain in the world,
without either the aid of supplemental oxygen or
sherpas. A corresponding documentary is being
filmed and a satellite phone will enable us to
link up to radio stations.
The same equipment
will allow us to provide reports to EverestNews.com
as the expedition progresses up the mountain.

Update: 8/22/2000

Expeditions are arriving
in Kathmandu !

Update: 8/25/2000

MARCONI CHO OYU 2000
Expedition

And so it has
begun…The Marconi 2000 expedition is underway.
Objective: to climb Cho Oyu (8201 meters), the
world’s sixth highest mountain, as well as to record
and publish an account of the adventure on internet,
radio and TV with the support of Marconi technology.

London was the departure point for
the Cho Oyu team, an international group of climbers.
Last minute packing, re-packing and adjustments to the
equipment became a frenzied culmination to months of
preparation. Finally, we were happy with the kit and
it was dispatched. No time to spare, every minute
used.

At the
check-in desk, our rude excess of baggage went through
without resistance. The mountain of equipment required
for a Himalayan expedition is often a costly addition
to air travel, but our leader, Toby, was almost killed
by the airline manager in a car accident a few days
before. Surviving unscathed, he was repaid with
business class upgrades for the team and free excess
luggage!

There
was time for a quick photo shoot in the terminal, in
front of a Marconi billboard. “This could be your
finest hour” was the message. A good omen?
Accompanying the text was an image of smiling, smartly
dressed business folk. The notion was one of ambition,
theirs to achieve business excellence, ours to climb
Cho Oyu without the aid of oxygen or Sherpas.

From
Kathmandu, our kick off point, we will start our
travel across land, through Tibet and arrive at the
bottom of the mountain’s north face. The team hit
the ground running with much to be done. The lightest
weight food and last bits of kit were bartered for in
the chaos of Thamel, Kathmandu. Our communication
equipment was damaged in transit and we needed to
source new parts and make repairs. This proved to be
difficult, and required a tenacious drive from all of
us to get back on-line.

We set
off early tomorrow for a four day drive. From the
Chinese border, we have learned that the monsoon rains
have dumped landslides on our route, severing the road
in several places. Nothing will be easy. Tomorrow the
adventure begins in earnest.

Namaste!
Innes Deans

Pictures:
Click on them for the full sizes pictures !!!

Update: 8/29/2000

CHO OYU 2000
POWERED BY MARCONI

Kathmandu is
a city not without its charms, however after a while
the heat and pollution can prove to be somewhat
wearing. When we awoke to the site of Colin running
naked around the room, screaming, having discovered
that his belly button was infested with maggots, we
knew it was time to leave!

The
team left town early on 24th August, eager to be on
the move. Our route followed the ‘Friendship
Highway’, a road that leads from Kathmandu through
the Himalayas to Lhasa in Tibet. According to some, it
is one of the most spectacular roads in the world, as
it weaves a tenuous line through enormous, steep sided
valleys. It was not long before we came across an
obstacle, the first of many. In places, the steep
valley sides, made unstable by deforestation and the
monsoon rains, had collapsed leaving precarious gaps
in the road with the valley floor hanging hundreds of
feet below. In other places, landslide debris was
strewn across the road barring the way. Progress was
slow and arduous. We had to unload and load all our
equipment from truck to truck, employing porters to
move over 750kg of our stuff through sections that had
become totally cut off. The work was often dangerous,
being exposed to stone-fall from above. Several near
misses were witnessed. In this way, it took us two
days to reach the Tibetan border.

Crossing
the border into Tibet proved to be relatively
uneventful. The rumors about difficult Chinese border
guards proved to be unfounded and it was not too long
before we were allowed entry and hiked on to Zangmu.
From Zangmu, we drove two hours up to Nyalam at the
edge of the Tibetan plateau.

Nyalam
is at 3750 meters and, after an overnight stay, most
of the team awoke with a ‘thick head’ from the
altitude. James, in particular, was feeling under the
weather. We decided to stay another night to acclimatize.
The next day, James was feeling no better and had
developed a worrying cough. That morning over
breakfast a council of war was held. One thing was
clear, James had to descend to Zangmu as quickly as
possible. Colin, James’ climbing partner,
volunteered to accompany him. It was decided that the
five remaining team members should press on to Tingri
(4300 meters) in order to establish base camp as soon
as possible.

So
now the team is split. Those of us at the front are
within sight of the mountain (unfortunately it is
obscured by cloud at the moment), the others shall
catch up as soon as their condition improves. This is
a set back but there is a long way to go yet.

See
the pictures:

Snowland Hotel

Road Out

Map of the Journey

Jeep driving in River

Innes Deans

Base
Camp Manager

Update: 9/11/2000

Marconi
Ahead! Marconi Reach 6,850m (22,500’) on Cho Oyu

We
remain enshrouded in monsoon cloud at Advanced Base
Camp (ABC: 5,750m). But curiously, higher up the
mountain seems to have escaped the worst of the
weather and snow conditions have become reasonably
stable.

Since
our last update, James and Colin have caught up with
the main body of the team at ABC (having spent a few
days at lower altitudes (see picture 1 attached which
shows Colin acclimatizing on the rocks above Base
Camp). James is now acclimatizing quite well having
carried a load up to Camp 1 at 6,400m two days ago.
Colin however has not acclimatized well to 5700m and
has returned back to Base Camp at 4800m with Innes for
a few days recovery. Pete, Toby, Mario and Chris have
been going very strongly, trail blasing above Camp 1
yesterday (Saturday 10th September) to
6,850m including fixing a short section of rope on
steep ice at 6,800m. The big news is that the Marconi
team are ahead of all the other expeditions on this
mountain.

ABC
is situated on a moraine overlooking the Nangpa-La
Glacier. It is a cold spot and collects the wild
monsoon clouds driving in from Nepal bringing with
them incessant snow squalls. The Nangpa-La is one of
the highest trade routes between Nepal and Tibet and
one can often see small, silhouetted figures scuttling
across the glacier bringing goods to and from Nepal.
ABC now has numerous international expeditions
ensconced on its cold rocks: Italians, Spaniards,
Americans, Koreans, Australians, other Brits and of
course the resident high mountain crows scavenging
amongst the tents.

The
team is in high spirits, especially after Birbal, our
wizard cook, produced a cake. Mario has lost his voice
which the rest of the team count as a blessing.Peter can be found strumming his guitar along
with a Korean expedition team member on his flute,
whilst James is still hunting his finest whisky,
probably hidden or already drunk by the Australian.The non-climbing highlight of the expedition
however was the swapping of dancing traditions with
the local Tibetan Yak herders. Their effort contained
much shuffling of feet and a fair deal of spitting
whilst the Marconi team pulled off a rambunctious
Hokey-Kokey, no mean feet at 17,000ft.

The
overall health of the team is good with the exception
of Colin’s slow acclimatisation. A key measure of
acclimatisation is the level of oxygen absorption in
the blood and we have a machine kindly donated from
the Glasgow Altitude Group which measures this and
heart rate (see attached results for the team).

The
plan now is to continue to load up Camp 1 with
sufficient food and fuel to be able to establish Camps
2 and 3 to use as an effective jumping off point for
the summit sometime in the next week or two.

Update:
9/16/2000

Marconi
Team Establish Camp 2 on Cho Oyu at 7,060m

The
Marconi team is driving hard to get a crack at the
summit in the next week with 2 separate sorties to
camp 2 above 7000m. The first (on Wed 13 Sept), was a
load carried by Mario, Pete, Toby, James and Chris to
establish the camp with three tents and provisions.
The second (today, Friday) was a load carry to C2 with
a possible further push to camp 3, however at the time
of writing the weather has come in and snow conditions
are deteriorating. Last night some small avalanches
came down just to the west of the camp where Pete and
Toby are at the moment (6pm Beijing time, Friday)
sitting brewing a cup of tea at 7000m but by radio a
few minutes ago, they have assured the rest of us that
snow conditions are reasonably stable!

James
and Mario are planning to make an attempt at the summit.
They plan to leave for camp 1 on 17th September,
moving up to C2 /C3 on 18th September and
then if all things go well, they will be standing on the summit
early on 19th September.

In
the meantime Colin is catching up with his
acclimatisation and has now been to camp 1 at 6400m
and Pete and Toby should be now well acclimatized for
a summit attempt later on next week, despite the fact
that Toby remains on anti-biotics for a stomach bug.

Watch
this space…!

Update:
9/17/2000

MARCONI
TEAM MAKE SUMMIT BID!

What a difference a few days can make! The fine spell
of weather that was enjoyed at the beginning of the
week continued for several days. The good conditions
allowed James, Pete, Mario and Toby to push up the
mountain and on the 13th they established Camp 2 at an
altitude of 7050m. That night Mario stayed alone at
Camp 2, the others choosing to descend and sleep at
Camp 1.

The following day (14th) both Mario and James elected
to drop down to Advanced Base Camp to rest, whilst
Pete and Toby (despite gastric illness!) stayed up.
The pair did sterling work in the middle of the
mountain, the next day ferrying loads to stock Camp 2
in spite heavy snowfalls and poor visibility. They
spent the night of the 15th at Camp 2 and came down
the next day narrowly avoiding an avalanche during
their descent.

On Saturday (16th) news filtered down the mountain
that a five man team from Korea with the support of
three Sherpas had reached the summit. In a
characteristically bold effort, despite poor weather
and dangerous snow conditions the Koreans had ploughed
their way from Camp 3 in an impressive 12 hour,
sustained effort to reach the summit. That night the
satellite phone in the Marconi tent was red hot as
justifiably proud Koreans spread the word back home!

For
a brief period on Sunday (17th) the
whole Marconi team sat around the table, Colin having
recovered from illness, now acclimatizing well and
Chris having returned from a night at Camp 2. It was
not to be for long. James and Mario, well rested after
a few days at Advanced Base Camp, set off to make
their summit bid. Their plan is to spend the night of
the 17th at Camp 1 and then to push hard,
through Camp 2, to establish Camp 3 on the evening of
the 18th. From this high point they will
make an attempt on the summit early in the morning of
the 19th.

Click
on these pictures !

Innes Deans Base
Camp Manager

Update
9/20/2000

Cho
Oyu Summit
Bulletin

The
Marconi Team Triumphs on the World’s Sixth Highest Mountain

Cho
Oyu was successfully climbed today by Mario
Pellicciari of the Marconi Team on 20th
September 2000, 1340 hrs Tibet Time

Following
the ascent of Cho Oyu by the Korean Team on 16th
September Marconi’s Mario Pellicciari has made the second
ascent of the mountain this season by the North Ridge
breaking trail with 2 Italians and 2 other
Australians.

In
a croaky radio communication from the summit by radio, Mario
said, ‘the route from camp3 was tough – we left at
12 midnight and by first light we were still breaking
trail in fresh powder snow up to our waists. We only
hit the summit ridge at 12 midday 12 hours of grueling
climbing after our departure. It was a further 1.5 hrs
to the summit which we finally reached at 1340hrs.
Altogether a very strenuous climb.

Conditions
underfoot were not ideal with fresh snow at all levels
of the mountain but the overhead conditions were
perfect with clear blue skies and little wind. The
view from the summit is dominated by Mount Everest 28
km to the South East. The southern, eastern and
western horizons are end to end mountains, whilst the
brown rugged Tibetan plateau stretches endlessly to
the north.

Mario
is the strongest of our party at altitude and it is
fitting that he reached the top first. The other
members of the team are close on his heals however,
with Peter Baily and Toby Molins positioned at camp 1
ready to depart for camp 2 tomorrow am and James
Maclaurin (who has now recovered from his 24 hr bug)
and Chris Patient ready to depart from ABC for Camp 1
early Thursday of this week. Innes Deans and Colin
Smith are preparing themselves well for a possible
summit attempt early next week.

All
made possible by and powered by Marconi.

Further
bulletins daily. Click
on these pictures !

James
Maclaurin / Innes Deans

Update
9/24/2000

Marconi
put two more on the summit of the world’s sixth
highest mountain.

At
00:00 hrs. on the 23rd Peter Bailey and expedition
leader Toby Molins left their tiny tent at Camp 3
(7600m) and made their bid for the summit. A crystal
clear sky made this the coldest night encountered so
far. So cold in fact, that several potential summit
attempts from other parties were abandoned, leaving
Pete and Toby alone on the upper part of the mountain
that night. By day break they could be seen to have
breached the rock barrier and be making steady
progress above 8000 meters. At 11 o’clock, under
perfect blue skies, the pair disappeared from sight as
they conquered the final slopes and pulled onto the
summit plateau. They remained out of sight for 3 hours
as they reached the summit. When they reappeared they
made an extremely rapid descent to arrive at Camp 2 by
three o’clock in the afternoon! They were the only
two to reach the summit that day and to be able to
take advantage of what appeared to be excellent
conditions.

As this report is written James MacLauren and Chris
Patient, also of the Marconi team, have moved up the
mountain and wait at Camp 3. They make their summit
bid tonight, the weather is holding and optimism is
high!

Innes Deans

Update
9/25/2000 Another
Amazing Marconi Summit

At
1.15pm, on 24th September 2000, Chris Patient, member
of the Marconi Cho Oyu Expedition, made the summit of
Cho Oyu (8,201m). Climbing any 8,000m peak is an
incredible feat but Chris’s achievement is all the
more impressive for the actual account of his climb.
On the way up for his summit bid, Chris was not
feeling at his best. At Camp 2, he was unable to eat,
he woke up in the morning with a severe headache and
was sick throughout the night. Even so, he moved up to
Camp 3 with James Maclaurin for a summit attempt. For
a little background information, Camp 3 (7500m) is not
a pleasant place. In the middle of an enormous face of
snow, it’s a gratuitous spot picked for no
particular reason except for the fact it makes getting
to the summit a little easier. Chris and James had to
weather this wind blasted spot in a crippled Bibler
tent, no bigger than dog kennel. The night was not
restorative. Without any sleeping bag, James was
unable to get to sleep and had to borrow Chris’s
down outfit to ward off hypothermia. Chris, trying to
remain hydrated, drank as much as he could only to be
sick all over James. In Chris’s words, “it was one
the worst night’s I’ve ever had, I got up feeling
extremely weak and tired”. But with the summit
looming overhead in conspiracy with the moon, Chris
and James set off at 4.30am for an arduous snow slog
up to a rope-fixed rock band. It was at this point
that James sensibly decided to turn around and return
to Camp 3. His feet were very, very cold and heading
for frostbite. Chris continued on his way with
complete focus on the summit. Digging into years of
endurance sport experience, Chris threw off two nights
without sleep, food and water and powered up the
mountain overtaking other climbers with oxygen. All he
had to say was “they looked a bit odd, I’d never
seen people using oxygen before”. He never expected
the summit ridge to end with the gentle curve going on
and on and on. Only when he saw a bunch of people huddled
together did he realize he’d reached the summit and
then of course the sight of Everest in the distance.
That done, Chris marched down to Camp 3, to Camp 2, to
Camp 1 and back to Advanced Base Camp in time for
dinner. After many nights above 7000m (more than any
other team member) and after several valiant attempts
at the summit, James is on his way back to Advance
Base Camp. Meanwhile, Innes Deans is poised at Camp 2
to go for the summit tomorrow, the last remaining
Marconi Team member.

Innes Deans

Update
9/29/2000

Marconi
Cho Oyu 2000 Report 9

Summit
or Toes

James
takes up the story:

‘Everything
went very smoothly up to camp 3 – 3 days of
monotonous snow slog without mishap. But it all
started to go wrong at camp 3 at 7,500m when my tent
mate decided to swap me for a mattress and then
commenced to vomit all night long over my boots,
before waking to say he had slept well (he went onto
summit later that day). We got up at 2am and walked to
the start of the fixed ropes at 7,600m at which point
I knew I had to turn back or swap my toes for the
summit. I could feel cold enter every bone and cell of
my wizened body which had by now become a mere shadow
of my former self. I descended quickly to camp 2 and
crawled into Pete’s sleeping bag after first
ejecting him and being handed a hot water bottle by
generous Toby. A few hours later I was heading back up
to camp 3 for a second summit attempt – glutton for
punishment that I am. The wind grew steadily stronger
during the night with wind speeds increasing to 70 mph
and spindrift (fine grains of snow) forcing its way
through the door zips. I got up at 2 am and battled my
way in the wind to and up fixed ropes to just under
8,000m at which point with my head torch showing up
nothing but a pencil thin strip of light piercing the
deep dark, I decided I was not going to attempt to
climb the final snow dome on my own to 8,200m, as well
as to risk frost bite, so I descended, tail between my
legs, back to camp 3 for further lonely hot teas, as I
waited for dawn.’

The
Marconi Cho Oyu Expedition is now packing up and
heading back to Kathmandu, four members having reached
the summit. A further concluding report will be sent
out from Kathmandu in the next few days.

Update
10/5/2000

Making
your own Luck.

After
four months of planning, two weeks of traveling and
three weeks of actual
climbing I’ve come to the conclusion that getting to
the top of an 8000m mountain is very much a lottery
….. the good news is that there are a few ways you
can stack the deck.

Before
we had even arrived at the mountain it was clear that
we had all been dealt
different hands. At 3700m James was the first to feel
the affects of AMS (Acute Mountain Sickness) and had
to drop more than a 1000m to the Tibetan boarder of
Zhangmu. Colin, who nobly accompanied James, was
feeling grand at the time but when he returned to
higher climes found that he, and not James, was the
one to suffer AMS. In one form or another (usually
vomiting) the AMS stayed with the unfortunate Colin
throughout the expedition and it is a testimony to his
stubbornness and great strength that he stayed with us
at Advanced Base Camp at 5,700m (ABC) to the end.
Having lost a stone in weight we’re all left hoping
that his wife recognizes him on his return.

There
are a thousand different theories on the best ways to acclimatize
and pace
yourself for such a huge mountain and before we had
even put boot upon snow it seemed as if we had already
flogged them all to death. As expedition leader I had
given suitably vague hints and answers such as, “Go
with how your body feels” or “You should push it
… but not too far.”Somehow what came
out of all this was that the Marconi team was working
its way steadily up the mountain and setting up camps.Come wind or snow the Marconi team began
to gain altitude as well as respect from other
expeditions. We were the first to wade through the
deep snow above Camp 1 and climb the short but
steep serac on which we left our rope for others. More
often than not we stayed for long periods up high,
enabling the stocking of camps and good
acclimatisation. Having stuck out a couple of
particularly windy nights at Camp 1 where we were
beaten about like a drum Innes remembers the emergency
call made…
“Bring more Honey!”.

If
a ‘window’ in the weather were to appear, (so far
the conditions had tended
towards avalanches and low visibility) then the
Marconi team would be in a position to go for the
summit. Through hard work, especially since we were
climbing without Sherpas, we had weaved a piece a luck
out of the mountain.

Its
was not so much as a ‘window’ as a small chink of
light that appeared and before we could grab him by
his shirt-tails Mario had dived right through it and
was heading up to the summit with a couple of
Australians and Italians. I was sad to see him break
away from the Marconi team but he had been denied a
summit attempt on a previous 8000er, Manaslu, and it
was clear that nothing was going to stop him this time
… And nothing did.

A
couple days later Peter and I were at Camp 3 ready to
go for the summit. A clear
view of the heavens without a thumping wind indicated
we had our window. Our minds however, were slightly
distracted by the fact that a number of large
expeditions had decided to pool together a dozen of
their strongest Sherpas to try and break a trail
through the difficult conditions towards the summit.
We were only two and as I dug around I found a little
Spanish ancestry but unfortunately no Sherpa or for
that matter any other mountain race.

We
left at 2am… it was not a hard decision, if we went
down from 7500m we’d have
to climb the whole mountain again. Breaking trail did
take its toll and we reached the summit plateau with
jelly legs; Pete was vomiting and I kept falling
asleep. We filmed our high point, stating pride in our
achievement but unsure of how far from the summit we
were and that we were incapable of taking another
step. It was only the next day when we showed the
video footage to some previous summiteer that we were
informed that we had in fact been standing on the
summit. I guess we were a little out of it.

What
I’m hoping exudes from this final report is the
determination and desire
of the Marconi team members that brought them their
own luck, no more so than in the summit bids by Chris
and James who were next up. Previous reports tell of
the most miserable night at Camp 3, James with near
hypothermia while Chris, taking his lead from Pete,
had decided on the vomiting approach. What amazes me
is that even in these conditions they both started up
the mountain, Chris making the summit while James,
having started cold, fearing that he might lose digits
to frostbite, sensibly returned.

Two
days later though James was heading towards the summit
again, this was now
his fourth day above 7000m, if the mountain was going
to be kind James was still giving himself a chance. At
7800m, at –40C , in strong winds and alone in the
dark James decided that the mountain didn’t feel too
kind and finally decided to call it a day.

That,
apparently, was the Marconi climbing team accounted
for but, and in fact
to no great surprise, our ‘Base Camp Manager’
Innes was suddenly to be found at 7000m hoping to make
a quick dash for the summit. Other expeditions were
sensibly retreating while winds of more than 100mph
were tearing up the snow and tents. Innes tent was
filled with spindrift snow that had forced its way
through the zipper despite the fact that it was shut
tight. The next day the Jet Stream winds still howled
and finally the whole Marconi team were back in Base
Camp … all fingers and toes accounted for.

We
headed out for home, it had been a fantastic success
… I looked over my shoulder
back at the mountain … just to check there were no
Marconi members heading back up.

By
Toby Molins

James
Maclaurin: As
the only Marconi employee on the expedition and
knowing that sponsorship of
an expedition of this nature is historically
unprecedented in the history of the company, I feel
very privileged to be in this position. I am fortunate
– I work with a group of immensely talented
individuals at Marconi plc and then similarly when I
take a bit of time off to climb this mountain I find
myself with a group of individuals who are not only
extremely gifted climbers but are also very nice
people.

That
is the main thing that characterised this trip to the
worlds sixth highest mountain – the group of seven
climbers had great spirit – our tent at ABC was
known as the Marconi Peace tent, there was always
great hilarity there with people passing through all
the time. It turned out there were numerous other
international expeditions on the mountain at the same
time and very quickly Marconi had earned respect for
pushing the route higher without the aid of sherpas:in fact we quickly earned great respect amongst
the
sherpas, those tough dwellers of the Everest region in
Nepal,for
our boldness.

Personally,
this expedition was as tough as it gets for me. I have
done numerous technical climbs around the world, but
this was by far the most exhausting trip I have done
solely because of the altitude. It had a completely
debilitating effect upon all of us and the
acclimatisation process was often slow and painful in
terms of migraine headaches. But the strange thing as
I write this in Kathmandu, is that the pain is
receding and what remains in my mind is the rugged
beauty of Tibet, the deep friendship of the team
members and memory of the long twisting ridges of Cho
Oyu, the ‘Turquoise Goddess’.